Ballington Visit

On 24^th February Jo spoke with some of the patients at Ballington House about mental health and what their issues were when trying to access the community teams.

One patient told Jo that they had attended multiple GP appointments expressing how low their mood was and asked for extra support. They said that each time, the GP would tell them they would have to wait for the referral process even though they said they were in crisis. No other support numbers were given to them.

Another patient said that when they were in CAMHS, they were initially told they were attention seeking. After multiple suicide attempts and self-harm, they were finally put into a CAMHS hospital. Initially this was informal, however, soon after was sectioned under the Mental Health Act. When they were turning 18, they were informed that they would be moving to an adult hospital and there was no transition. They found it very hard as there was no named social worker and was informed they would have a duty social worker when one was needed.

Ballington House